All EU legislation should be published, say MEPs

Expressing her group's support for "full public access to the documents of the European Union's institutions," Swedish centre-right MEP Charlotte Cedershiöld, the EPP-ED group's rapporteur on the Cashman report, nevertheless expressed satisfaction that the report had been referred back to the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs. 

"During the renewed consideration in committee, the EPP-ED Group will seek to strike a fair balance between full openness and access to the documents of the EU institutions, on the one hand, and full protection of sensitive private and commercial data, on the other," Cedershiöld declared. 

"This legislation will deeply affect the functioning of the institutions of the European Union. We therefore think that it is fair that the proposal, as amended by Parliament, be referred back to committee for renewed consideration and to allow for discussions between the institutions," the MEP continued. 

"It is my hope that the three main actors in EU law-making will be able to find common ground on this issue," she added. 

Expressing satisfaction with the Parliament's position, Finnish MEP Anneli Jäätteenmäki, ALDE spokesperson on constitutional affairs, said "we hope to work with the incoming Swedish Presidency to find an agreement with the Commission and the Council on a revision of the regulation that goes in the direction of more transparency". 

Describing the Commission proposal as a "step back from the current rules," Jäätteenmäki appealed to the other institutions "to work on the basis of the EP proposals," because "any other way would send a negative signal towards EU citizens and all those seeking to understand the European Union better". 

ALDE MEP Marco Cappato (Radicals, Italy), who had prepared an earlier opinion for parliament setting out the framework for the revision of the regulation, commented: "The report marks an important step towards a more transparent, open and accountable EU. It obliges EU institutions to ensure publication of all legislative documents, the Council to make public how national governments vote and what they propose in EU Council meetings and the Commission to keep updated registers of all documents." 

"Member states' documents on the implementation of EU legislation and policies will have to be public, as well as legal service opinions concerning legislation prepared by EU bodies. Information stored in databases and data are now covered by the definition of document. An amendment on financial transparency I proposed was also approved in plenary - unfortunately without full support from PES and EPP opposition - requesting full financial transparency, accessible via a website and database," Cappato continued. 

Speaking in a Parliament debate the day before the vote, Swedish GUE/NGL MEP Eva-Britt Svensson said "openness must be the main principle - secrecy can only be an exception that is decided upon on a case by case basis". 

According to Svensson, all documents must be subject to transparency rules as soon as they are drafted. "Many decisions have been transferred and are now taken at the EU level, but openness and transparency have not followed. Citizens are aware of this and this is one of the causes of low participation in EU elections," she stressed. 

"Citizens feel - often rightly so - that decisions are made in the EU without them being able to inform themselves and that therefore they do not have the possibility to discuss, debate or influence decision-makers," Svensson said, calling for the promotion of dialogue between citizens and decision-makers and a "much wider range of documents to be made available for public scrutiny," the MEP concluded. 

Welcoming yesterday's vote, EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros expressed his satisfaction that "the European Parliament has, in effect, asked the Commission to rethink and modify its proposals". "I very much hope that the Commission will agree to do so," he added. 

The Ombudsman wants the Cashman report "to serve as a basis for a common position acceptable to all institutions and benefiting all European citizens to be reached under the Swedish EU presidency in the second half of 2009". 

Moreover, Diamandouros told EurActiv last month that "it will be a big event for citizens if the Council moves forward on access to documents in the autumn". Sounding a cautious note, however, the Ombudsman warned that "it's one thing to have declarations, but it's quite another to see how they're applied". 

"I would be inclined to think that if [incoming EU presidency holder] Sweden doesn't get an advancement of the current regime, it will drop the [current] proposals for fear of going back on what we already have," the Greek said.